Climate Change Refugees in Bangladesh

Across the world, the issue of climate change is harming large amounts of people. “Climate change refugees are defined as people who have been forcibly displaced resulting from environmental factors caused by climate change and natural disasters” (Climate Refugees: A Global Crisis, 1).

In Bangladesh specifically, the citizens that are suffering from the effects of climate change the most live in the vast Ganges Delta; they are migrating to cities such as Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, in order to escape the rising sea levels. “Twenty-eight percent of the population of Bangladesh lives on the coast, where the primary driver of displacement is tidal flooding caused by sea level rise ” (Climate Displacement in Bangladesh, 1). Since Bangladesh has low elevation, high population density, and inadequate infrastructure, the country is vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change.

Factors of climate change that have displaced large numbers of people in Bangladesh include sea level rise, storms, cyclones, drought, erosion, and salinization. The process of salinization has been increased by rising sea levels and occurs when coastal drinking water supplies have been contaminated by salt, leaving the thirty-three million people that rely on those resources more vulnerable to health problems such as acute respiratory infections, skin diseases, and high blood pressure during pregnancy. Symptoms of preeclampsia include rapid weight gain, abdominal pain and headaches. Salinity also causes crop damage because of soil degradation. As a result, the crops suffered large yield losses and significant price reductions. “Up to 50% of those now living in Bangladesh’s urban slums may be there because they were forced to flee their rural homes as a result of riverbank erosion” (Climate Displacement in Bangladesh, 1). There are several strategies in which the people of Bangladesh cope with these effects of climate change.

Strategies that the people of Bangladesh have used to adapt to climate change include raising their homes on mounds above the normal flood level, and “adjusting their cropping pattern to take advantage of the flood waters” (Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 18). New farming methods include “irrigation schemes to enable farmers to grow dry season rice crop in are at risk of flooding” (Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 18). The Bangladesh government has invested in “coastal greenbelt projects involving mangrove planting along nearly 9,000km of the shoreline” (Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, 19). However, despite these actions, the people of Bangladesh still struggle to maintain a living for themselves and their families.

I believe that it is crucial to understand that the issue of climate change will only worsen and that people are suffering. When we do not think of them as equal, we do not feel the urge to help them. We see them as separate because of the lifestyle differences, including cultural and religious. If we can focus on our similarities rather than our differences, then we can make a real positive change for underprivileged people and those impacted by climate change.

Works Cited “Climate Refugees: A Global Crisis.” Help Refugees, 16 Sept. 2019, https://helprefugees.org/news/theplight-and-rise-of-climate-refugees/. “Climate Displacement in Bangladesh.” Environmental Justice Foundation, https://ejfoundation.org/reports/ climate-displacement-in-bangladesh. Opu, Mahmud Hossain, and Tim McDonnell. “Climate Change Creates a New Migration Crisis for Bangladesh.” National Geographic, 24 Jan. 2019, h t t p s : / / w w w . n a t i o n a l g e o g r a p h i c . c o m / environment/2019/01/climate-change-drivesmigration-crisis-in-bangladesh-from-dhaka sundabans/#close. “Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.”. Google, https://www.google.com/search? q=coping%2Bmechanisms%2Bfor%2Bclimate% 2 B c h a n g e % 2 B v i c t i m s % 2 B i n % 2Bbangladesh&rlz=1C1GCEO_enUS876&oq=coping %2Bmechanisms%2Bfor%2Bclimate%2Bchange% 2 B v i c t i m s % 2 B i n % 2Bbangladesh&aqs=chrome..69i57.20333j1j8&sourc eid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.